The Way and the Mountain is Marco Pallis' second book on his journey, both physical and spiritual, to the towering peaks of the Himalayas, this time to Tibet itself after WWII. Pallis was able to experience first-hand the cultural and spiritual ways of the Tibetan people just before the country's situation changed forever. This book will be welcome as a glimpse of a traditional Buddhist world that once was whole, and for the keen observations of a Westerner making sense of spiritual practices, moral systems, modes of dress, and other traditions that are often hard to understand unless described by an open and seeking soul. Pallis was just such an observer, and the traditional world of Tibet that he encountered comes to life again and in much greater intelligibility for his Western readers through The Way and the Mountain.